A report by Business Insider has created a list of trends, technologies and experiences that they say most Millennials haven’t heard of.
As you browse the list, remember that millennials are people born between 1981 and 1997, according to the Pew Research Center.
- Green Stamps: This was a retail loyalty program that was ahead of the curve. Green stamps were part of the Sperry and Hutchinson company. Collect stamps, keep them in a special booklet and redeem store rewards.
- 8-inch floppy disks: Floppy disks – basically a large/flat version of flash drive – downsized over the years from 8-inch to 5.25-inch to 3.5-inch. They were introduced by IBM in 1971.
- Tab: A popular soft drink from the 1970s.
- Ricky Nelson: A celebrity who became known from “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” which led to a music career.
- Slide Rules: Basically early calculators. They could be used to perform basic math functions.
- Automats: These were a quick way for people to grab food. Vending machine restaurants: drop a coin in the slot of whatever you want and then help yourself.
- Roller skate keys: Roller skates once just strapped around your walking shoe. And to adjust the straps you needed a key.
- ‘In the Year 2525’: A song by two-piece folk band “Zager and Evans” that topped the Billboard charts for six weeks.
- Ms. Magazine: A pro-feminist magazine written by women.
- The gym class “Rope Climb”: A thick rope attached to the gymnasium ceiling. Kids were asked to climb up as high as they could.
- Pet rocks: A trendy knick-knack marketed as a maintenance-free pet.
- Milk chutes: This was where the milkman dropped off bottles of milk and collected old bottles.
- Sears’ Wish Book: A catalog for shoppers to sift through that was packed with the season’s most popular toys.
- Brownie camera: A small, handheld camera that made home photography possible; launched by Kodak.
- Sea monkeys: Brine shrimp sold as pets, but the actual pets didn’t at all resemble the human-like creatures on the package.
- “Duck and cover” drills: These drills were practiced as a safety measure as the Soviet Union started testing nuclear weapons. The instructions were simple: get under your desk and cover your neck.
- Cassettes vs. 8-tracks and VHS vs. Betamax: How people consumed audio and video became a war between companies who were offering different versions of the same technology. Compact Cassettes ended up winning out over 8-tracks for portable audio and VHS beat out Sony’s Betamax for videotapes.
